I Slipped and Fell at Work. Workers' Comp or Slip-and-Fall?

Slip-and-fall accidents are among the most common sources of personal injury
lawsuits. Falls are also one of the leading causes of workplace injuries,
which are covered by workers’ compensation.

Slip-and-Fall Accident Lawyer

If you have been injured in a slip-and-fall accident at work in North Carolina,
you could have a workers’ compensation claim
and a slip-and-fall lawsuit. It depends on the circumstance of your accident.
The Law Offices of Jason E. Taylor will investigate the accident to identify all the potentially responsible
parties who may be liable after your injury.

If you are injured while at work and/or while performing your assigned
job duties, you are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits
in most cases. Your eligibility may be challenged if you were involved
in horseplay that led to your injury or if you were impaired by alcohol
or illegal drugs, and your impairment led to the accident that caused
your injury.

Workers’ compensation is an insurance program that employers must
extend to each employee, with certain exceptions. In exchange for this
coverage, an employee gives up the right to sue their employer for any
negligence that leads to an accident and injury. But only the worker’s
employer has this protection. Others who were negligent may be held accountable
if they are responsible for your workplace injury.

In cases where someone other than the employer causes a worker’s
injury, the injured worker may seek compensation through a third-party
claim. For example, many slip-and-fall accidents are caused by wet floors.
If a co-worker mopped a floor and left it to dry without a warning of
the wet and slippery surface under direction of your employer, you would
not be able to sue your employer.

On the other hand, if an employee of a contracted cleaning company failed
to warn about the wet and hazardous surface, and you slipped and fell,
you may have a claim against the cleaning company in addition to obtaining
workers’ compensation from your employer. The allegedly negligent
party in this case is not your employer. The contracted cleaner’s
employee and/or their supervisor would be a non-employer third party and
may be held liable for your accident.

The same principle would apply in similar cases, such as:

A caterer for a company dinner you were required to attend failed to clean
up a spill that caused your slip-and-fall accident

An HVAC repair contractor failed to tighten a valve above a hallway in
your office, which allowed a leak that caused a puddle you slipped and fell in

While attending a class at a local jobs center required by your employer,
you slipped and fell in a puddle formed on a poorly maintained breezeway
between the classroom and the parking lot

A contractor who erected scaffolding on a construction site declared the
structure ready for use despite an oily substance spilled on a deck, which
led to your slip-and-fall accident

The contracted landscaping company at your office building left a light
coating of sand on pavement outside a doorway where you exited and slipped and fell

The contractor for the renovation of your office building’s lobby
installed a slippery stone for the floor, which is where you lost your
footing and fell. The interior designer who selected the stone might also
be liable for this accident.

In each of these cases, you were injured while at work or attending to
assigned job duties, but any potential negligence that caused your accident
was on the part of someone other than your employer. This could provide
the basis for a personal injury claim that seeks compensation beyond the
benefits provided by your workers’ compensation claim.

We suggest that anyone with an accident similar to one described above
contact The Law Offices Of Jason E. Taylor to discuss the circumstances of their injury. There may be several factors
connected to a potential claim or multiple claims, but we can ensure a
full exploration of your legal options and that we’ll work to help
you obtain the maximum compensation available.

The information on this website is for general information purposes only.
Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual
case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt
or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.

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